60 SAFARI 



cheap coffee and cigarettes, were the only signs of life 

 we saw in their neighborhood. At the dnkas, little 

 black boys would come out and stand there, stark 

 naked, at salute — a trick they had learned from the 

 King's African Rifles, the National Guard of blacks, 

 officered by whites, which patrols this region. 



We had learned to handle natives on our previous 

 visit and during our years in the South Sea Islands; 

 to like them also. Boculy was our best guide — 

 the "Little Half-Brother of the Elephants." I think 

 he knew the pachyderm family better than any man 

 living. He could tell their size and speed and the 

 direction of their travel by a crushed leaf or a broken 

 branch. A mere handful of tracks would reveal to 

 him the number in a herd. 



We were fortunate indeed in employing Boculy. 

 He was born on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, but he 

 seems to know every mountain and river, in fact, 

 every waterhole in Southern Abyssinia and British 

 East Africa. Somewhere in the wilds he has a 

 thousand cattle and two hundred and fifty camels, 

 which the Borans or some one of his wandering tribe 

 tend for him while he is on safari with the white man. 

 The languages of each of these plains and desert 

 people he knows and he surpasses the chiefs by far in 

 intelligence. By a sort of free masonry he can secure 

 aid from them when we need it; and a mere look 

 from him or a wave of his hand will drive away whole 



